[ SECRET POST #2421 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2421 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 051 secrets from Secret Submission Post #346.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

There is also the fact that words evolve. Just because a word had a negatively-based etymology doesn't mean that it's at all like that anymore. Take most insult words. Hooligan, retard/imbecile/idiot, etc.

You can also call someone hysterical, or say they went into hysterics. No longer as anything to do with women. Or floating uteruses.

The etymology of a word doesn't necessarily have anything to do with its current usage. Words like retard, obviously, are still used to insult and hurt a group of genuinely handicapped individuals. And their use within culture is still pretty fresh. Gyp, as a verb, is over 125 years old. It's shed its roots, I think. -_-

DA

[(Anonymous)]

Hell, just look at bastard. That one has completely shed its ties with its original meaning and is going off on its own little etymological tangent...

I have a funny story about the word "retard"

[nyxelestia]

Several years ago when towards the end of 8th grade (so me and my classmates were mostly in the late-13 to very early-15 age range), my social studies class did a project on various historical figures, with one group doing a presentation on a woman (I forget who) that did a lot of advocacy for the mental ill and the insane in the late 1800's.

At one point the main speaker of that group was quoting a book, and then stopped to say that while they were quoting, they changed a word. They explained that the book used "retarded" in reference to mentally disabled, but because retarded is an insult today they changed it...because they felt wrong insulting the mentally disabled, which is what they would have been doing if they'd used "the mentally retarded" as the book they were quoting did. I remember one of the other guys in the presentation actually chiming in to say something to the effect of, "the word is offensive, especially to special ed kids, and we didn't want to use it here" or something to that effect.

My teacher had to stop and explain that actually, "mentally retarded" was the original medical term for the mentally disabled, and that this is where the modern insult of "retarded" comes from.

(Ironically enough, several times in my life I'd heard that it was once used as medical/official term for the mentally disabled, but the first time I'd ever actually heard it used as such was in college, when a class of mine watched a documentary from the 80's - before playing it, my professor had to stop and tell the class, "as many of you probably don't know, this used to be the official term, so don't be shocked when you hear it in this video" - and as it turned out, there were people who hadn't known.)

Re: I have a funny story about the word "retard"

[kazokuhouou]

I actually had a similar discussion about this with my English teacher cause my senior paper was on Flowers for Algernon.